I hear the White Admirals have emerged at one of our almost-local woodlands...but...it's been persisting down most of today, so no chance of seeing them, so here's a couple of views from my archives #UKbutterflies

Wet and chilly in Cambs. Just 40/19 #teamMoth but NFY were BBYU, Cypress Carpet, Shears, and Smoky Wainscot (My archive photos)

Temnperature was rather low last night in Cambs, 14C in the garden, but weather sites saying 11C. So, not much of a result for #teamMoth 53/23 although 21 of those were HND. Privet and Elephant Hawk-moths brought a little something to an otherwise large grey-brown party.

Still going through my Dorset holiday snaps and found rubbish grabs of Mother Shipton and Burnet Companion... So, if you want to look out for these two creatures here are a couple of archive photos for reference #teamMoth #UKMothing More info in the ALT

Back in May, Ballard Down, nr Ulwell, Dorset, I caught a glimpse of what I thought was a flying Garden Carpet, it landed under a leaf and I got an almost-useless photo. I've finally worked out what it most likely was - Small Argent & Sable, Epirrhoe tristata. @mothiduk.bsky.social

Face-to-face with a Dingy Skipper butterfly at Ballard Down, inland from Swanage #DorsetButterflies #UKButterflies I say face-to-face, this was taken with a 500mm zoon on a 2/3 frame from just over a metre away and then cropped to almost a quarter of the original frame width

One of the adult Rock Pipits dropped down in front of me while I was sitting down, landed not six feet away. Curious, but unperturbed. #UKBirding #DorsetBirding

Juvenile Rock Pipit waiting for parent to to feed it at Dancing Ledge on the Dorset coast, we didn't get close, but the parents didn't seem to mind the presence of the scant visitors to this fairly-hard-to-get-down-to-and-back-up-from rocky beach

Corvid cliff cronking. #Raven #UKBirding #DorsetBirding

Not such a great haul last night, 42/28, but first Brown Silver-line of the year #teamMoth Lovely moth, although this one is balding a little. Not the most exciting moth name though, has to be said

We've talked at length for years about writing "Pride: The Musical" based on the film about the LGBT community working to help the miners during the 80s strikes. Daughter just msg'd to tell me it's coming to the West End imminently! Dammit! #MissedTheBoat

Meanwhile, no Goat this year, although I've seen mention from someone else in Cambs...it was 23rd May 2025 that I had my one and only sighting of this massive unit of a moth

Not entirely a washout last night despite the washout... 57/22 #teamMoth Neocochylis molliculana (Tawny-fronted Straw) was NFY, those are its "official" names. It used to be Cochylis molliculana (Oxtongue conch)

Our local Black Hairstreak are out, but forecast isn't great, don't think I'm going to get to see them this year. So, here's an ovipositing female from a couple of years ago to be going on with #UKButterflies

Just a quick potting session, and no proper count this a.m. Noted NFYs for me in Cambs: Common Emerald and Thistle Ermine. A couple of dozen of the usual suspects HND and Lge Nutmeg, Treble Brown Spot, a couple of Ringed CMs and a Privet HM #teamMoth #AngineDePoitrine moth

Cliffside Raven, Durlston NNR, Dorset. There were several Ravens on the cliffs. I thought this one deserved the monochrome treatment #UKBirding #Hitchcock

Fulmar flypast at the Durlston cliffs, Dorset. Great birds, which at first glance look like gulls, but flying with straight, stiff wings, and with an odd tube on their beak. This tubenose is a smaller, distant cousin of the perhaps more well-known Albatross #UKBirding #DorsetBirds

Still not finished processing holiday snaps from our recent trip to Dorset, here's one that stood out, calling juvenile Stonechat

83/35 #teamMoth in slightly cooler Cambs, Small Clouded Brindle was new for the year and not one I've recorded since 2022

Last night's Eastern Bordered Straw, Pauper Pug, Dark Sword-grass, Yellow Shell, Privet Hawk-moth, and various micros brought my garden yearlist to 171 species. VC29/Cambs #teamMoth #UKMothing

156/56 #teamMoth in 18C Cambs last night 13 NFY and two possible NFGs, but still trying to confirm a Pauper Pug and an Eastern Bordered Straw

@mothiduk.bsky.social ...and this one Eastern Bordered Straw, by any chance? Thanks

@mothiduk.bsky.social Pauper, Ochreous, something else? Too worn? Thanks!

Expected to see a lot of Painted Lady in north Norfolk yesterday as there seems to be an irruption underway, but observed only a couple. I can't quite tell whether this one is puddling on a discarded orange segment or simply resting on a pebble!

In other amusing bird photos...here's one from Snettisham Beach taken yesterday of a Ringed Plover. From way beyond the rope nest exclusion zone, zoomed and cropped

Still working through recent holiday snaps...one from Poole Harbour

Not a huge haul last night #teamMoth 65/25 but first Delicate of the year

Decent haul last night: 91/29 #teamMoth NFYs: Clancy's Rustic, Clouded Border, Elephant Hawk-moth, Iron Prominent, Pine Hawk-moth. Green morph of Lime HM too having had the red morph days ago. The Pine and the Lime had escaped the trap by dawn

60 of 18 species #teamMoth logged in Cambs last night, 20C min temp. Two of them were Peppered Moth, a female white one with black specks, and a male that is more black with white specks, intermediate insularia form not full black carbonaria morph. www.sciencebase.com/science-blog...

I don't often see Whimbrel in the UK, it's usually its cousin the Curlew, but Brownsea Island and Poole Harbour had several showing on our recent trip #UKBirding

Meanwhile, back on Brownsea Island, Common Terns mating next to an indifferent Black-tailed Godwit, and otherwise engaged Sandwich Terns #UKBirding

Lots of Soft-brome sprouting up through our "wild" lawn at the moment. Seems to have flecks of yellow fungus on the seedheads, perhaps Puccinia brachypodii or a related cereal crop pathogen #wilding (Please correct me if I'm wrong about the species!) www.sciencebase.com/science-blog...

Everyone would gather... #RushFans

4am start counting 54/30 in 17C Cambs last night #teamMoth Half a dozen NFY - Oak Hook-tip, Broad-barred White, Lesser Pearl, Foxglove Pug, Flame Shoulder. Lime hawk-moth was not NFY, but different colour morph from previous lighting-up session #mothsMatter

Brindled Tortrix, Ptycholoma lecheana, previously Leche's Twist Moth, new for our Cambs 18C garden last night #teamMoth #mothsMatter For those who don't know there are hundreds of tortrix moths, which aka leaf-rollers for the larval habit of rolling themselves in the leaves of the foodplant

As a science writer of 36y and now seeing endless AI BS everywhere, I'm thinking of setting up as a de-AI agent. You send me your AI text and I convert it into actual writing. Rates will be just 5x what you would've paid if you'd hired a writer to write it in the first place #QuidsIn

@mothiduk.bsky.social Any chance? Underside. Undergrowth on a chalky down in Dorset yesterday. My guess RTS Carpet agg, but I thought I saw Garden Carpet fly off from same patch

@mothiduk.bsky.social Any chance? Underside. Undergrowth on a chalky down in Dorset yesterday. My guess RTS Carpet agg, but I thought I saw Garden Carpet fly off from same patch

Osprey at RSPB Arne a couple of days ago, it investigated one of the potential nest sites and gull took an interest. The handful of twigs would've been placed there by hand not by a bird. It's barely the foundations Photo taken from about half a mile away, zoomed to 500mm and massively cropped.

Oh, the Osprey? Yes, of course... Very distant, half a mile, say, fully zoomed 500 on 2/3 sensor and photo cropped within in inch of its proverbial

Dorset natural highlight (2 Eagles and an Osprey aside) was this micro moth at RSPB Arne. Dozen or so bouncing about the sycamore saplings along fence to the trails Male Yellow-banded Longhorn, or formerly Degeer's Longhorn, Nemaphora degeerella. The antennae are 4/5 times longer than the moth

First time I'd seen this noctuid - Clouded-bordered Brindle in the burnt-looking aberration known as "combusta" form #UKMoths #TeamMoth

Poplar Hawk-moth has to be the least hawkish of our hawk-moths, leaf-like mostly, but definitely has a pareidoliac face looking back when viewed "upside down"

Dorset Pine Hawk-moth a couple of days ago, resting timelessly on a chunk of borrowed Jurassic rock #UKMoths #teamMoth

We usually think of UK eagles as being birds of the Scottish islands and highlands, but that's more about historical persecution and extirpation. Translocate White-tailed Eagles on to the south coast of England and they're quite happy with the coastal grasslands, eating goslings, ducklings, carrion

My first Fox Moth seen recently in Corfe Castle village, drawn to synergetic. She said some eggs in the egg tray What a beauty, so big. The texture, the shades #UKMoths #TeamMoth #mothsMatter

This Hobby, Falco subbuteo, was feeding about 55m above my head #UKBirding As you can see from its scientific name, this bird is a falcon, it's a smaller version of the Peregrine (F. peregrinus), but the "subbuteo" of its surname means below a buzzard...which is a hawk...so go figure.

Hobby hunting dragonflies over RSPB Ouse Fen Earith #UKBirding Photo details in the ALT Never seen so many over this particular patch, they're usually over the Over side and beyond the gravel conveyor belt

Red Kite with prey (I'm assuming Mallard duckling) flying over RSPB Berry Fen earlier today #CircleOfLife #UKBirding RKs are largely scavengers but will take chicks and eggs as well stranded fish, carrion, and roadkill.

Forgot to say, my #UV torch arrived. What a garden revelation it is, so many plants that look blood red and flowers that have landing lights (obvs, really). But, I made the mistake of taking it into the kitchen. Do not do this, especially near the toaster, cooker hob, handles, or lightswitches